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Halloween Safety A Priority In Fort Smith

Halloween Safety A Priority In Fort Smith

TIMES RECORD FILE PHOTO / Ken Lawson, from left, his wife Leah, and their children, Luke, 3, Delia, 8, and June, 5, stop to pick up a treat from Carin Phelps on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, at Harvest Time Church in Fort Smith.

Parents can prepare for a safe night out with their children on Halloween by searching online for registered sex offenders living in their neighborhoods before they go trick-or-treating.

In September, law enforcement officers with the U.S. Marshals, Arkansas State Police, Fort Smith and Van Buren police departments, Sebastian County and Crawford County sheriff’s offices and several other federal, state and local agencies made compliance checks at every registered sex offender’s residence in western Arkansas during Operation Safe Scare.

U.S. deputy marshal Cory Thomas said 495 sex offenders are registered in Sebastian and Crawford counties, 18 of whom were found to be out of compliance during Operation Safe Scare.

Detective Mike McCoy with the Fort Smith Police Department said Fort Smith has 230 sex offenders living within the city limits and 11 who do not live in Fort Smith but work in the city.

Police cannot force registered sex offenders who are not on probation or parole to put up signs identifying themselves as sex offenders at their residences, or keep them from decorating or answering the door on Halloween, McCoy said.

“We just tell them not to,” McCoy said. “A lot of them won’t — they’ll turn their light out and stuff like that.”

However, harsher stipulations exist for sex offenders on probation or parole, Thomas said.

“All sex offenders who are currently under state probation or parole are required to come up to the parole office on Halloween night, and they watch movies,” Thomas said. “It gets them out of the house and keeps them off the streets. It’s a requirement, so I mean, they don’t have a choice.”

Probation and parole officers also require those sex offenders to post signs at their residences to alert neighbors, McCoy said.

Residents can search for registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods by going the Fort Smith Police Department’s website, www.fortsmithpd.org, hovering over the Public Awareness tab, and then clicking on Sex Offender Search.

There, citizens can enter an address and find registered sex offenders within a specified radius on a map. They also can sign up for email alerts for if a sex offender moves into their neighborhood.

“I always encourage parents to do that,” Thomas said. “It’s not that hard of a thing before you’re going to go trick-or-treating, if you know the area where you’re going to go. Just jump on the website, take a quick look at where you’re going to be going, and see if there are sex offenders in the area.”

McCoy said the Police Department also is hoping to develop an app that parents could use to identify registered sex offenders in an area by using a cell phone.